Von Miller might be rolling out the welcome mat for Kirk Cousins, but Vance Joseph isn’t. At least he’s not going to say so out loud.
The Broncos coach was circumspect Wednesday when asked about the elephant in the room — the expected pursuit of a certain high-profile free agent quarterback.
Asked how Cousins handled pressure, Joseph stepped carefully away from the tampering line, saying “I haven’t coached Kirk Cousins so I can’t speak to that to be honest.”
He did acknowledge that Cousins was a “good football player,” adding “He’s a good one, but I’ll leave it at that.”
The Broncos have to find someone after last year’s committee approach didn’t go so well. And while they figure to put Trevor Siemian on the trade block, they still have Paxton Lynch and Chad Kelly hanging around. Joseph noted that Kelly (last year’s seventh-rounder and nephew of Hall of Famer Jim Kelly) was healthy after missing his rookie season with a wrist injury.
“I can’t speak to the future right now,” he said of the incumbents. “Right now, they are our quarterbacks.”
That’s a temporary status, as his answer about whether the team would pursue a quarterback in free agency was telling: “I would say this, we have to play better at the quarterback position.”
The Broncos also pick fifth overall, so if they don’t land Cousins they’re in good position to find one in this year’s draft. They got a head start by seeing some of them at the Senior Bowl, but this week is an important step in their evaluations of the biggest problem they have to solve.